Monday, February 18, 2008

Yarn: Soft Silk in colour 34. I used 4 whole skeins and a bit on a fifth. I knit with it double stranded.

Needles: KnitPick's Options size 6,5mm/US10.5

Time: I started January 19th, 2008 and finished it all on February 16th, 2008.

Pattern modifications: I made my sleeves full length. I changed the shape of the sweater so it'd fit my pear shaped body. I picked up stitches from the wrong side and sewed the collar down the wrong side as I misunderstood the instructions. The sweater I saw in person that made me want to knit this for myself had the collar folded out (as the first sweater) and then my reading of the instructions make sense. As you can see in the third picture, my seam is on the outside of the garment. I don't mind it awfully though as it kind of blends in with the reversed stockinette.

Comments: I really like this sweater and I hope to be able to wear it a lot this year. I think it'll make a perfect sweater for spring and summer if the collar is bent out. With a low cut neck on a t-shirt it won't be too warm on sunny summer nights. Today I wear it with the collar up and it feels appropriate considering it's February... The longer sleeves also make more sense to me.

I've never used 100% silk before and I don't think this will be the last. I love the rough look of the double stranded silk in reverse stockinette. The stockinette side looks a bit uneven and sloppy to me. But with the right design... Or maybe a wash. (Speaking of washing. The label states that the Soft Silk can be machine washed in cold settings but the website says to handwash... Confusing. Has anyone tried machine washing Soft Silk?) One thing that really bothered me with the yarn was all the knots. I found 21 knots in the four skeins I used... As I knit double stranded I don't know if they were evenly spread out in the skeins or if I got one or two bad hanks...

To get the pieces together I decided to use single crochet. A technique I've never used before. I liked it! It was fast and easy. And works perfectly for reverse stockinette.

BTW: These are the first pictures taken of me modelling my knitting in our garden!